1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to digital wrapper format communications and, more particularly, to a system and method for multiplexing and demultiplexing parallel digital wrapper data streams.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital wrapper format communications, such as those specified in the International Telecommunications Union ITU-T G.709 (G.709) standard, are used for the high-speed transportation of lower hierarchy messages, such as synchronous optical network (SONET) messages. Digital wrapper messages are communicated at a wide variety of data rates. Obviously, it is desirable to communicate information at the highest data rate possible. One key limitation in the digital wrapper data rate is the equipment used to process the messages. Digital wrapper messages are received at nodes, which include processors. The processor performs functions such as decoding the received message, which is typically encoded with forward error correction (FEC). The processor can use the FEC overhead information to make corrections to the received data. The processor can also drop overhead bytes, analyze overhead bytes to determine the health of the network, overwrite the overhead with new overhead bytes, and encode the message with FEC for transmission.
However, the performance of the above-mentioned tasks by the processor can slow the overall data rate between nodes. Then, the data rate of the network must be lowered to accommodate the processors. Alternately, the processors can be designed to be fast enough to accomplish all the required tasks without slowing the overall data rate. However, extremely fast processors are expensive and consume more power to operate. Further, the processor interface devices must be upgraded to keep pace with the faster processors.
It would be advantageous if lower speed processors could be used in the digital wrapper format communication nodes without lowering the overall data rate of the network.